Sunday, 21 December 2014

Where medicine is loved, there is a love of humanity

(First Published in New Era Newspaper -9 July 2014)

Recently I visited one of the stores that sells a range of
beauty and personal hygiene products in the western part of Windhoek. My
fiancé, who is presently pregnant, wanted to purchase something for her flu and
had me tag along. Once inside the shop (which I have never actually visited
before), I noticed they stocked a large variety of products including pots,
pans, and other white goods. In our case, we moved to the section dealing with
vitamins and cough mixtures to see what was available. I requested one of the
shop assistants to help us but it was painfully clear the person had no real
training on the products that were offered. After some discussion, my fiancé
and I felt it would be better to visit a nearby pharmacy. The same products
were available at the pharmacy and we requested the pharmacy assistant to give
us some guidance. After ascertaining that we were “expecting”, she quickly
pointed out that it is not healthy to take some of the products and suggested
we should rather look at effervescent (soluble in water) flu medications.

I took the time to speak to the pharmacist after this
recommendation and asked about the level of training needed to be an assistant
at their pharmacy. The owner informed me that they tried to take students in
the field of biology or at least a three month course in first aid. In
addition, only the pharmacist may actually suggest a product for a client that
is pregnant or breast-feeding.

When I asked about the nearby hygiene products chain store,
the pharmacist did admit that they were facing fierce competition and it was
unfair as the staff who were working at the chain store were mostly school
drop-outs with little or no education in basic medical care.

After this discussion, I took to the Internet to gauge the
reality of people purchasing over the counter medicines. I came across the
following definition by an international pharmaceutical company:

“Over-the-counter
(OTC) medicines can be purchased at a pharmacy without a prescription. These
include Schedule 0, 1 and 2 drugs, such as medication for headaches, coughs and
colds, minor skin conditions, etc. It is always a good idea to consult the
pharmacist (or assistant) when choosing an OTC product. They are trained to ask
you some important questions in order to give you the individualised care you
need.”

Now it begs the question, what training does the person need
in a supermarket or chain store to suggest (prescribe) such a product when they
have received no training in this matter at all? I went to the law books and
looked up the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 2003 as well as the
Pharmacy Act of 2004. But in my rather layman understanding could not see any
regulation prohibiting a retail store from selling schedule 0,1 or 2 drugs.
Thus, there is no legal recourse it seems to make sure that such stores do not
sell these over-the-counter drugs, at at the very least have a staff member
that is at least semi-qualified to assist clients.

To cut a long story short, I believe that we need a consumer
protection act and a consumer protection council that is empowered to look
after the interests of the Namibian consumer. This will prevent stores from
selling products to customers that will actually do more harm than good.

Milton Louw is the IT Project Coordinator at
the Electoral Commission of Namibia. This column is written in his personal
capacity as a consumer activist and the views expressed in this column are his
own.